So you may have heard by now that Starbucks’ label Hear Music and Paul McCartney are in bed together. The Starbucks staff has had to listen to Sir Paul’s latest on a loop ALL day to promote the release. How special for them. I don’t get the whole Starbucks goes music enterprise anyway. Don’t get me wrong, I love a good caramel latte as much as the next person, but since when are distributors of over-priced, flavored coffee experts on music? I wonder how long it’s gonna take for other chains to say if ‘Starbucks can do it, well gosh darned, so can we!’ Before you know it the Kings of fast food and popular horror novels – Burger and Stephen respectively – will combine their powers and put out a Double King special with a Whopper of a suspense novel. Or Madonna will promote her next tour at a popular Swedish clothing store … oh. Some might misinterpret this brilliant marketing move as a sign that music is indeed nothing more than another mass-produced product to be sold along side hot beverages and skinny-fit faded jeans. Of course they’d be wrong, it’s a soulful art that needs to reach the broadest audience possible so artists like Paul McCartney won’t starve.

One guy interviewed on CNN said that people were tired of going all the way to the music stores to buy CDs. That makes me sad. I wonder what it means as an artist when people can’t be bothered to pick up your albums unless it’s right there at the counter of their local coffeeshop. Anyway, you can now spruce up your coffee break with a banana bran muffin and Paul’s new CD Memory Almost Full.

   The White Stripes – One More Cup Of Coffee